Archive for May 9, 2007

They’re asking about their menu and if it is important to do the ecises in the exact sequence they are listed. The answer is “absolutely, yes it makes a HUGE difference.”

When an Egoscue therapist constructs a menu for client, they aren’t just throwing a bunch of exercises together. The exercises on that menu are selected AND sequenced in a very specific fashion to accomplish a very specific effect. For example, I might have a client who has a pelvis that is rotated (twisted) clockwise, so when they stand facing a wall, the left hip is closer to the wall than the right one. They also have an upper back that is really rounded forward. Now I may want to give them some standing exercises to go after the position of the upper back, but maybe I wrote the menu to first address the pelvic rotation. I don’t want them standing in that rotated position and end up strengthening the rotation. So we address the rotation first (in this example), and then once I see it come out, THEN we move on.

If you’ve been through an appointment in our clinic (or in any Egoscue clinic), you’ll notice that the therapist may periodically get you up and check your posture throughout the appointment. What is happening is they are seeing if what they wanted to get posturally out of a set of ecises is what they actually got. If so, terrific, onward and upward. If not, then as a therapist we need to determine why we didn’t achieve what we wanted out of that sequence and then figure out what stimulus we need to present to get what we want. It’s that kind of line of thinking.

So when a client changes the sequence of their menu, they are in effect writing their own menu and changing what it is the therapist was trying to do. I had one client who was very stubborn about this. They liked what they liked and wanted to do what they wanted to do. I explained at repeated visits why sequence was important but they just didn’t listen. So one day I asked them “so when did you complete your Egoscue certification?” The client looked at me, puzzled. I explained “well, you’re writing your own menus, you obviously aren’t interested in my advice, so I’m assuming you’ve had extensive training here. I had no idea. What was the theme of your case studies?”

Then I just smiled. The client looked at me for about 10 seconds, silent, then started laughing. “OK, OK, I get it, it’s really THAT important?”

Yeah, it’s that important.

If you feel the need to alter your menu’s sequence, don’t do that on your own. Contact your therapist, explain what’s happening and enlist their help on this. They’ll work with you to address whatever issue is going on so you can have a menu you are comfortable performing.